Propel Disability Poetry Book Series
The Propel Series honors the best in disability poetry with publication and awards.
About the Propel Series
More often than not, the poetry community prioritizes diversity by publishing and promoting minority and female writers, while disabled poets do not receive similar attention. The Propel Disability Poetry Book Series remedies that gap. This series is a new imprint publishing poetry written by disabled poets, edited by disabled poets produced by Nine Mile and underwritten with generous support from Propel Capital. ​​
Human experience is variable like shades of grass. If you ask poets, the latter is the case. If you ask disabled poets, you’ll learn about “disability gain”—where disability is not defined by loss, it is instead a source of insight. The term “disability gain” comes from the Deaf community, which indicates, among other things, there is a freshness deep down. While non-disabled writers know this to be true, mainstream poetry continues portraying disablement as a calamity.
What can we learn from poetry about crippled bodies and the culture of disability? Is what we find in a poem merely a figurative illustration of extrinsic historical or political truths, or do poets create fresh bindings of identity and consciousness?
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Three books have been published in the Series thus far:
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Creating the Faces and Other Poems by Tito Rajarshi Mukopadhyay
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Inside the Invisible by Daniel Simpson (Propel Award Winner)*
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Swoon by D. J. Savarese
Titles currently in production include:
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Somewhere on the Ledge of Fallen Things by Lisa Dougherty
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How Can I Say It Was Not Enough? By Anne Kaier (Propel Award Winner)*
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The Importance of Being Feeble-Minded by Nathan Spoon
Sample poems from these books can be read in the Fall 2023 and Fall 2024 issues of Nine Mile Magazine.
Nine Mile has been publishing its magazine and books on a consistent basis since 2016. The press published an historic 380-page double issue featuring Neurodivergent, Disability, Deaf, Mad, and Crip poets in 2019, and the press remains committed to advancing disability poetry. Nine Mile has also been an integral part of programming, mentorship, and instruction by and for disabled writers for several years.
*The Propel Poetry Award is granted for a book-length collection of poems by a crip/disabled poet at any career stage.
